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PALM BAY, Fla. - A man accused of lobbing a Molotov cocktail into woods that are among the thousands of acres that have burned along Florida's Atlantic coast conceded Thursday that he may have accidentally sparked a fire.

KENWOOD, Calif. - Vineyard manager Steve Thomas grasps the trunk of a zinfandel vine, a redwood of the vineyard, gnarled with age and planted in the days when irrigation meant a barrel of water on a horse-drawn cart.

YANGON, Myanmar - From shopkeepers handing out free rice porridge to medical students caring for the sick, ordinary people in Myanmar are stepping in to help cyclone victims as the military regime severely restricts international aid.

WASHINGTON - Commercial banks and other financial institutions need to beef up their ability to detect and protect themselves against risks like the credit and mortgage debacles, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday.

BAGHDAD - Government troops began house-to-house searches for al-Qaida in Iraq militants in Mosul on Thursday, part of a major security operation to cleanse Iraq's third largest city from cells of the terror network.

FRANKFURT, Germany - The Dalai Lama criticized China's suppression of unrest in Tibet and insisted Thursday that the region - with its diverse heritage and rich traditions - wants to live in peace with Beijing under genuine autonomy.

ELDORADO, Texas - In just five years, the West Texas polygamist sect transformed 1,700 acres of scrubland purchased for $700,000 into a bustling ranch with a blazing-white limestone temple, sprawling three-story log cabins, woodworking shops and a dairy.

JERUSALEM - President Bush feted Israel on Thursday in honor of the 60th anniversary of its founding and predicted that its 120th birthday would find it alongside a Palestinian state and in an all-democratic neighborhood free of today's oppression, restrictions on freedom and extremist Muslim movements.

BOGOTA, Colombia - Interpol said Thursday it found no evidence of tampering in computers Colombia says it seized from a slain leftist rebel. The finding discredits Venezuelan assertions that the files are bogus and gives Colombia the international backing it sought.

LOS ANGELES - A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a Missouri woman for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor girl who then committed suicide.

RIDLEY PARK, Pa. - Investigators have concluded that two military helicopters were vandalized on the production line at a Boeing factory near Philadelphia, the Defense Department said Thursday as it offered a reward.